McCann Worldgroup to Hit the Streets in Over 100 Countries

20,000 McCann Employees Will Ask Consumers How They Think, Feel and Shop in a 24/7 Online World

In an unprecedented global research initiative, McCann Worldgroup has enlisted all of its employees around the world to leave their desks for a day and head to the streets in their local markets to meet with and interview people face-to-face to gain insights into their shopping behaviour and their relationship to cultural values. This new “Truth About Street” study will involve roughly 20,000 McCann Worldgroup employees in more than 100 countries.

Every department and level of the network has been enlisted to participate, from associates to senior management, including creative, business leadership, strategy, production and administrative teams. The questions and conversations are designed to gather additional information and insights about local cultures, brand attitudes, traditional shopping, e-commerce and emerging consumer sentiment.

“This is the first time that we have galvanized our entire employee base to help us develop in-depth insights about local culture and its connection today to brand attitudes and shopping behaviour. In doing so, our employees will hear first-hand the cultural shifts that are affecting our clients and have a deeper understanding of how to apply these learnings to help grow our client’s brands and businesses,” said Luca Lindner, McCann Worldgroup President.

“This builds on our initial Truth About Global Brands research, which uncovered shifting human and cultural dynamics, requiring new approaches to marketing that we’ve called ‘Deep Globality.’ By empowering our whole network, we will both be gaining rich truths and inducting everyone personally behind these new global and local perspectives that are influencing how our clients need to go to market,” said Suzanne Powers, McCann Worldgroup Global Chief Strategy Officer.

The findings will be incorporated in the next wave of the company’s Truth About Global Brands study. First conducted in 2014 by McCann Worldgroup’s global intelligence unit, McCann Truth Central, it looked in-depth at the changing dynamics affecting global brand marketing. The research entailed quantitative work with 30,000 people in 29 countries, supplemented by rich ethnographic research with consumers as well as with marketing, cultural and entertainment experts.

The proprietary Truth About Street methodology was first pioneered by McCann Latin America in a 2012 study focused on the consumption of street-vendor food, followed by a study of shopping behaviours in 2013. Following this, Latin America has hit the streets each year with a new topic to continue building on these truths, with about 2,000 McCann employees in 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries.